1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to note pads for physicians and other health care professionals, and more particularly to prescription papers that permit physicians and health care professionals to transfer prescription information onto a patient's chart in a convenient and cost efficient manner.
2. Description of the Related Art
Physicians and other health care professionals such as dentists and psychiatrists usually write drug prescriptions for their patients on small sheets of prescription paper. The prescription paper typically is not larger than 5 inches by 5 inches and can be purchased in pad form. Most prescription papers are preprinted with the doctor's name, address, DEA number and various other license numbers. Some also include designated areas for physicians to write the particular drugs prescribed, the dosage and refill information. After the doctor writes the prescribed medication on the prescription paper, the patient takes the prescription paper to a pharmacy where a pharmacist fills the prescription based on the doctor's instructions.
As customary practice, doctors typically have to transfer the prescription information, including the medication and dosage prescribed, to the patient's record to keep track of the treatment given. Some doctors rewrite the entire prescription on the patient's chart while others make a photocopy of the prescription paper and attach the copy to the patient's record. Since a typical doctor writes on an average of about 30 prescriptions per day, it becomes time consuming and costly for doctors to have to transfer the prescription information onto the patient's record each time a prescription is written.
In addition to prescribing medication, doctors often recommend to their patients non-prescription drugs by writing the information on note pad papers such as Post-It Notes®. Similar to prescription information, the doctor usually has to transfer the information given to the patient to the patient's chart for record keeping purposes. The task of rewriting such information onto the patient's chart would also consume the valuable time of the doctor and/or the staff.
To address this problem, prescription pads comprised of stacked sets of superimposed carbonless prescription papers have been developed. An exemplary prescription pad with stacked sets of carbonless prescription papers is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,248,280 to Lockwood. As illustrated in Lockwood, a carbonless copy is positioned underneath each sheet of prescription paper so that when a doctor writes the prescription information on the paper, the information is automatically transferred to the carbonless copy attached underneath. The patient then takes the original prescription paper to the pharmacy while the doctor retains the copy of the prescription for the patient's file. The prescription copy can be attached to the patient's chart via staples, paper clips, or the like. However, the prescription paper, typically being a small slip of paper, can easily become lost or misplaced in a patient's file which usually contains numerous pieces of paper of different sizes. Furthermore, while the doctor no longer has to rewrite the prescription information when using prescription papers such as those described in Lockwood, the doctor would still have to waste valuable time ensuring that the copy of the prescription paper is properly attached to the patient's chart or placed in the patient's records. It is also time consuming for a doctor to have to sort out the chronological sequence of medications prescribed when the prescriptions are written on numerous pieces of paper that are all clipped together to the patient's record. Furthermore, it can be even more problematic when the doctor forgets to place the copy of the prescription paper into the patient's file.
Thus, there is a need for an efficient and convenient way for doctors and health care providers to transfer prescription and non-prescription information given to patients onto patient's records without having to copy the information or having to attach extraneous pieces of paper to the patient's records.